Ben Hayden is a British electrical consultant based in Marbella, Spain, who advises English-speaking expats across 24 European countries on solar panels, heat pumps, EV chargers, battery storage, and electrical services. His work has been published in PV Magazine (April 2026). More at ben-hayden.com.
info@ben-hayden.com · +34 711 004 350 · ben-hayden.com
Moving to Europe is exciting. You’ve researched visas, healthcare, schools, and bank accounts. But there’s one thing almost nobody looks into before they move – and it’s the one thing that catches people off guard in every single country I work in.
Electricity.
After 15 years of helping English-speaking expats across 24 European countries with their electrical systems, I’ve seen the same mistakes hundreds of times. The good news is they’re all avoidable. Here’s your checklist.
1. Check the power supply before you sign anything
This is the single most important thing on this list, and almost nobody does it.
European homes have a contracted power capacity – the maximum amount of electricity the property can draw at any one time. In Spain, it’s called potencia contratada, in France, it’s puissance souscrite, and in Italy, the standard household supply is just 3 kilowatts.
Three kilowatts. That means if you try to run an oven, a washing machine, and an air conditioning unit at the same time, the power trips.
Before you sign a rental contract or complete a property purchase, ask what the contracted power capacity is. If it’s too low for your needs, upgrading can take weeks of paperwork and cost several hundred euros. In rural areas of Greece, Croatia, or Portugal, the supply might be single-phase and limited – upgrading could require infrastructure work by the grid operator.
Check first. Negotiate before you commit.
2. Don’t stay with the default electricity provider
Most European countries have deregulated energy markets, which means you can choose your electricity supplier. The default provider – whoever was supplying the property before you arrived – is almost never the cheapest.
Switching suppliers in Europe is generally straightforward. In Spain, you can change providers online in 15 minutes. In France, there are dozens of alternatives to EDF. In Germany, comparison sites like Check24 make it simple to find cheaper rates.
Switching can save EUR 200 to EUR 500 per year. It costs nothing to do, and there are no exit penalties in most countries. This is the easiest money you’ll save as an expat.
3. Understand time-of-use tariffs
Many European countries offer electricity tariffs that vary by time of day. In Spain, the discriminación horaria tariff has three price periods: peak (most expensive, weekday mornings and evenings), standard, and off-peak (cheapest, typically midnight to 8am and all day on weekends and public holidays).
This means running your washing machine at 11pm instead of 11am can cut that load’s electricity cost by 40 to 50 percent.
Simple habits make a real difference: schedule dishwashers, washing machines, tumble dryers, and pool pumps to run during off-peak hours. Set your hot water to heat overnight. If you have a storage heater, programme it to charge during the cheapest period.
Not every country has time-of-use tariffs, but Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, and Belgium all offer some form of variable pricing. Ask your electricity supplier what’s available.
4. Don’t let anyone sell you the wrong heating system
Deciding how to heat your home is one of the biggest decisions you’ll make as a European property owner, and the answer varies completely depending on where you live.
In Northern Europe – Scandinavia, Germany, the Netherlands – heat pumps are the standard. They’re efficient, governments subsidise them heavily, and they can cut heating costs by 40 to 60 percent compared to gas boilers. Germany will cover up to 70 percent of installation costs through its BEG programme.
In Southern Europe, many properties rely on reverse-cycle air conditioning for winter heating. It works, but it’s not designed for it. I’ve seen expats in the Algarve and the Costa del Sol spending EUR 300 to EUR 400 per month on electricity in winter because they’re heating a poorly insulated villa with split unit air conditioners.
The solution depends on the property. A modern heat pump is almost always the best investment for a well-insulated home. For an older stone farmhouse or a traditional villa, improving insulation first will save more than jumping straight to expensive equipment.
Get an independent assessment before you buy any heating system. I’ve met too many expats who spent EUR 15,000 on equipment that was wrong for their property.
5. Look into solar panels – the numbers are better than you think
If you own your property and you’re staying for more than five years, solar panels deserve serious consideration.
A typical 6kW system in Spain costs EUR 5,000 to EUR 7,000 installed and generates enough electricity to cover 60 to 80 percent of a household’s annual consumption. At current prices, it pays for itself in four to six years – and the panels are warranted for 25 years.
But here’s what most expats miss: the subsidies. Nearly every European country offers financial incentives for solar installations. Tax deductions in Spain. MaPrimeRénov grants in France. The Superbonus legacy in Italy. KfW loans in Germany. These can reduce your out-of-pocket cost by 20 to 50 percent.
The catch is that these programmes are administered in the local language, through local government portals, and they change frequently. Many expats don’t discover they exist until after they’ve already installed and paid full price.
Research the subsidies before you install. This is one area where professional advice in English can save you thousands.
6. If you’re installing AC, pair it with solar
If you’re moving to Southern Europe, you’ll probably install air conditioning. Here’s something most people don’t think about: your AC runs hardest when the sun shines strongest. That means solar panels offset your biggest electricity cost at exactly the right moment.
Installing solar and AC together is cheaper than doing them separately (shared electrical work, single site visit), and the economics are dramatically better because the solar generation aligns perfectly with the AC consumption.
If an installer quotes you for air conditioning, ask them to quote solar at the same time. If they can’t, find one who can.
7. Get three quotes – and check credentials
This applies to any electrical work, but especially to solar panels and heat pumps.
I’ve seen the same solar system quoted at EUR 6,000 by one installer and EUR 12,000 by another in the same town. The equipment was identical. The difference was markup.
Always get at least three quotes. Always check whether the installer is certified and insured in the country where you’re having the work done. Every European country has certification schemes – in Spain, look for installers registered with the REBT, in France, look for RGE certification, in Germany, check for HWK registration.
In the current market, with solar installer bankruptcies rising across Europe, choosing a financially stable, properly certified installer is more important than saving a few hundred euros on the quote. A warranty from a company that goes bust six months later is worthless.
The bottom line
Electricity in Europe isn’t difficult – it’s just different from what most English-speaking expats are used to. The billing structures, the tariff options, the subsidy programmes, and the installation standards all vary by country.
The expats who get it right are the ones who treat electricity as part of their relocation planning, not as an afterthought. Check the power supply before you buy. Switch providers on day one. Take advantage of time-of-use tariffs. And if you own your property, look seriously at solar panels – the returns across most of Europe are genuinely excellent.
Your electricity bill will thank you.